While en route to a speaking engagement, I found a page in Airtran Airways' in-flight magazine that's a great lesson on how to write thumbnail bios. These are one- or two-sentence bios that you can tack onto the end of articles you write for other publications, along with your contact information such as an email address and website URL. You can … [Read more...]
“Savvy Senior” columnist self-syndicates
Every so often, an excited Publicity Hound writes to tell me about a terrific idea for a column they want to write and sell to one of the big news syndicates so they can become rich and famous like Dear Abby, Ann Landers, Mike Royko and hundreds of others. Not so fast, I tell them. Selling your column to a syndicate is a long shot because … [Read more...]
Tips for submitting articles online, offline
If you're submitting articles for online publications, don't make the mistake of thinking you should follow the same rules you follow for getting articles published offline. Or you'll blow your chances of ever getting them distributed on the Internet. Here are three major differences: --If you want something published in a print publication, you … [Read more...]
How to promote a computer security company
Doug Baker of Tucson, Arizona wanted to know how to promote his network security services to local CEOs without making their MIS directors angry. From Susan Hammond of Calgary, Alberta, Canada: "Write an article about network security concerns in the paper or local business magazines, painting the IT guys as the heroes, able to plug large holes … [Read more...]
Beware of greedy editors that offer nothing for articles
If you write articles for print and online publications, don't get trapped by greedy editors who demand exclusive rights to an article but aren't willing to offer anything in return. If you give an article to a big-name publication that wants exclusive rights, you can't offer the same article to anyone else. So you might be shutting yourself off … [Read more...]
Do you know copyright law? Take this quiz
If you write articles for print or online publications to position yourself as an expert, pay attention. It’s time to find out if you know what you’re doing when it comes to legal issues like copyright, or if you’re just pretending. Are the following scenarios true or false? --Cosmopolitan magazine prints an article written by you. You received … [Read more...]
Wanted: Your 7 tips
If you've wanted to submit how-to articles to various websites, but you haven't had the time, here's a shortcut that's so easy, you'll be ashamed to make excuses.
The website is called Top7Business, a business-focused article site that only accepts articles in what I call a "tip … [Read more...]
Find content, submit articles at EzineArticles.com
Do you publish a print or online newsletter and need articles? Are you a speaker or author who wants to track what your competitors are writing? Do you want to be notified every time a new article is available from any of 21 categories of articles?
If so, EzineArticles.com has a … [Read more...]
Create 2005 best & worst lists
Keep your eyes open this year for things you can add to a "Best of 2005" or "Worst of 2005" lists which you can then submit to the media at the end of the year.
The media love these end-of-year briefs. Here are some ideas to get you thinking:
--An expert who speaks on anger management can write "The 7 Worst Temper Tantrums of … [Read more...]
Writers too reluctant to write like they talk
One of the biggest writing problems I see among people in my mentoring program, and others who hire me to improve their writing, is that they're afraid to write like they talk. They never use one-word sentences. They refuse to start sentences with words such as "and" and "but" because an elementary … [Read more...]